"So, it's (nearly) April and the things you say don't seem as certain as on Hogmanay". So sang Glasgow band, Deacon Blue on one of their lesser known tracks, Twist & Shout, in 1991. I've added a new blogroll to this two year old blog, which I have titled 'Fellow Hoodlums', which is the album from which the song 'Twist & Shout' came. In addition, the title track has been going around my head all week as I walk through the city centre, with its mentions of the Clyde, St Enochs, Buchanan Street etc.I consider it appropriate to use this title because I met a load of new bloggers at Glasgow in the past week. Deacon Blue are famously from the city and it kind of refers to the comment made by closing time plenary speaker, Derek Dick (aka Fish), about us being 'rock 'n' roll teachers', not the kind of teachers he used to dislike as a kid.This twist of opinion towards (presumably school) teachers came when his teacher, 'Jimi' Hendrix called a Genesis album, 'rubbish'. I'll try not to say it made him shout, but oooh, i just did! It was interesting to hear him describe writing 'Kayleigh', his most famous lyric, and getting that 'BAM!' feeling - like a hand grenade to the heart - both in the plenary and in the pre-conference interview.
Fish was an inspired choice by iatefl president, Eric Barber, to close the conference. Not everyone in the room would have heard of him but I, for one, remember purchasing 'Misplaced Childhood' by Marillion in the 80s and going back to 'Script For A Jester's Tear' after that. I subsequently bought 'Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors', Fish's debut album on cassette, soon after it came out, in 1990. Fish sang 3 songs from this album - A State of Mind, Family Business and The Company. The latter, a self-described drinking song ended with getting the whole auditorium to dance like 'fairyland creatures'. OK, I cannot claim to be his biggest fan, far from it. Plenty of my friends are bigger fans... but when Fish mentioned meeting Peter Gabriel, my favourite artist of all time, he made a reference to being disappointed to meeting Gabriel when he was young. I had no such disappointment today, and you can see the photo below on this post. Fish's closing plenary can be seen in full here. The sound quality is not great on some of the songs, especially 'A State Of Mind'. I have uploaded this song myself, along with closing song, 'The Company'. You can just about see me recording at around 56.55 into the BCGO video, around the 'russian choir/ballet dancers' bit and again around 57.36. Please check out the end of this post for my recording. ->
< Fish on stage at iatefl >
On the final day of the conference I made up slightly for a self-imposed half-day on the penulatimate day. At least I managed to catch the plenary session this time,ProfessorJames E. Zull. Thanks to the brilliantly free, accessible and frequently updated British Council Glasgow Online site, however, I watched it from my hotel over an extended breakfast, whilst blogging my thoughts on the previous couple of days. Fortunately Mr Dull's (excuse me, I apologise) Mr Zull's slow-paced delivery gave me many pregnant pauses with which to write stuff.The Professor of Biology and Founding Director of the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE) at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) gave the penultimate plenary session. It was actually rather good, a biological explanation via the brain for language learning. But it was a direct contrast to Steven Thorne's lightning speed delivery in the previous plenary on Thursday.
Steven Bukin delivers a whole load of iPad ideas for the classroom.
Over in Leven, Steven Bukin demonstrated the many uses of teaching with an iPad. Technology is great when it works and for the most part it worked for his presentation. The clearest benefit of a teacher using an iPad to teach is the mobility it gives him or her to wander around the classroom and still control the whiteboard or projector, as Steven showed. There are also a number of cool apps, synonymous with apple products generally as we know, which he also demonstrated. Most of these are free or a couple of dollars, as he put it. However, we must remember, that iPads should only be used if they are going to benefit learning. It is not simple enough just to use them because you have access to them. In some well-funded institution, there is the strong possibility of making a sweeping gesture and buying their students iPads to replace laptops - I'm thinking of places in the middle east in particular. They will become more and more widespread but we must always remember the use of them that counts.
I begun to watch Paul Louis in Dochart demonstrating the use of moodle to support English for Academic Purposes projects. It seemed very well researched and well presented, but I left to join the lively discussion going on in Alsh. Here, Silvana Richardson was presenting four sacred cows. Nothing stirs language teachers more than trying to put tried and tested beliefs to the sword. Here, she laid out her sacred cows as shown in the photo below. Amongst many other opinions, I particular remember the statistic about 95-98% of students cannot 'infer meaning from context'. She expressed this as borderline impossible unless the students are higher-intermediate or above. This is startling, if indeed true, as the idea of building up knowledge and meaning of unknown words using the surrounding words is quite an established thing to do from an elementary level upwards. As Silvana said, if you want Spanish students to know the meaning of the world 'table' you can ask them to look up the word in a translation dictionary 'messi' or you can give them an English dictionary with its description of 'A flat horizontal slab or board, usually supported by one or more legs, on which objects may be placed...' etc etc.
4 Sacred Cows from Silvana Richardson (Bell)
After Silvana it was a quick pop to the room next door to see my Celta trainer from three years ago, Carole 'Anne' Robinson. This was about 'personalisation', getting more out of our students' with a number of simple methods. Carole seems to like the Dogme approach and that 'emergent language' can come from the student. She also recognises coursebook limitations and how the two might be reconciled.
What's the meaning of this, asks Carole 'Anne' Robinson?
The end of a fabulous, inspiring week for everyone!
Final thoughts. This has been one of the most enjoyable weeks of my life, something I tweeted as I came back on the train from Glasgow. I've been in great 'company'. Not just at the conference. Everyone I have met in Glasgow has been very friendly - even the homeless and the drunks. And no, I didn't receive aye fond 'Glasgow Kiss' at any point. A Glasgow taxi driver even dropped me off the Holiday Inn and 30 minutes later returned having been across the city and back. I had dropped my Unibus Pass - worth over £100 to me - he didn't accept my offer of a reward but I was incredibly grateful. WHAT.AN.AMAZING.WEEK !
With Derek 'Fish' Dick
Here are 2 songs, 'A State of Mind' and 'The Company', by Fish, which I recorded with my own camera.
Hogmanay". So sang Glasgow band, Deacon Blue on one of their lesser known tracks, Twist & Shout, in 1991. I've added a new blogroll to this two year old blog, which I have titled 'Fellow Hoodlums', which is the album from which the song 'Twist & Shout' came. In addition, the title track has been going around my head all week as I walk through the city centre, with its mentions of the Clyde, St Enochs, Buchanan Street etc. I consider it appropriate to use this title because I met a load of new bloggers at Glasgow in the past week. Deacon Blue are famously from the city and it kind of refers to the comment made by closing time plenary speaker, Derek Dick (aka Fish), about us being 'rock 'n' roll teachers', not the kind of teachers he used to dislike as a kid. This twist of opinion towards (presumably school) teachers came when his teacher, 'Jimi' Hendrix called a Genesis album, 'rubbish'. I'll try not to say it made him shout, but oooh, i just did! It was interesting to hear him describe writing 'Kayleigh', his most famous lyric, and getting that 'BAM!' feeling - like a hand grenade to the heart - both in the plenary and in the pre-conference interview.
I begun to watch Paul Louis in Dochart demonstrating the use of moodle to support English for Academic Purposes projects. It seemed very well researched and well presented, but I left to join the lively discussion going on in Alsh. Here, Silvana Richardson was presenting four sacred cows. Nothing stirs language teachers more than trying to put tried and tested beliefs to the sword. Here, she laid out her sacred cows as shown in the photo below. Amongst many other opinions, I particular remember the statistic about 95-98% of students cannot 'infer meaning from context'. She expressed this as borderline impossible unless the students are higher-intermediate or above. This is startling, if indeed true, as the idea of building up knowledge and meaning of unknown words using the surrounding words is quite an established thing to do from an elementary level upwards. As Silvana said, if you want Spanish students to know the meaning of the world 'table' you can ask them to look up the word in a translation dictionary 'messi' or you can give them an English dictionary with its description of 'A flat horizontal slab or board, usually supported by one or more legs, on which objects may be placed...' etc etc.
